1. Field of Invention
This invention relates in general to a system for monitoring and measuring motor vehicle performance characteristics and, more particularly, said system being adapted for measuring motor vehicle displacement data and fuel flow data and calculating various performance characteristics from said data.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In motor vehicle performance testing, it is necessary to measure and calculate various motor vehicle performance characteristics. The types of characteristics measured and calculated are things such as the distance the vehicle traveled, vehicle speed, accelaration measurements, fuel volume consumed, fuel mass consumed, fuel volume flow rate, fuel mass flow rate, and efficiency ratios such as miles per gallon. In the prior art, these measurements and calculations were made by using separate instruments assembled together into an array of instruments on a relay rack. This resulted in complexity of operation, complexity in synchronization between the various instruments, and complexity in the connection between the various instruments. Therefore there was a great deal of time lost putting the array together properly and sometimes there was also lost data. It would therefore be an advantage if this system were incorporated into one unit that performed the desired functions of timing, data measurement, and computation of vehicle performance characteristics. Further the prior art of using an array of separate instruments to perform motor vehicle performance monitoring had the problem that these arrays tended to be bulky and difficult to use. Further, the necessity for many different types of instruments made the vehicle performance monitoring systems expensive.
The prior art also does not show a motor vehicle performance monitoring system which has an easy set-up procedure and which includes a system which starts the monitoring at a preset point and stops the monitoring at a preset point while calculating all the characteristics. The Whitaker U.S. Pat. No. 4,296,409 does disclose a combine performance monitor for monitoring a combine's farming operations. The Whitaker patent shows the use of combine sensors with a microprocessor to monitor farming functions of a combine. However the system does not include a computer controlled starting calculation feature. Only manual starting is available and the stopping calculation is not computer controlled, but once again, requires manual intervention. The device's user control panel does not provide for user-prompting programming in that the user would have to know when to program several features and also how to program them. There is no way to know if the user has programmed all the features he wishes to program without him keeping a mental note external of the system. The present invention features many of the advantages of the Whitaker patent in the area of motor vehicles and also features computer calculated start and stop conditions and includes a very easy to use, user-prompting control panel for programming.
Another example of a prior art monitor is the Meyer patent, U.S. Pat. No. 4,274,144, but the Meyer patent does not have computer controlled start and stop. It also does not have a user-prompting control system nor is it versatile in calculating many vehicle performance characteristics. The Malin U.S. Pat. No. 4,179,740 shows a vehicle performance analyzer which lacks programmability so that it could be used for various vehicle performance tests and therefore is limited to a small number of features. Malin also lacks calculated computer start/stop and user-prompting programmability. Watson, U.S. Pat. No. 3,549,868 shows a fuel-mileage computer. Watson is an example of a limited performance characteristic monitor of the type which would need an array of other monitors in conjunction with it to peform many tests on the vehicle. Further Watson does not have a computer calculated start/stop feature and does not have a user-prompting programmability feature.
One of the vehicle performance characteristics that is important in today's striving for more economic motor vehicles is the volume and mass of the fuel used by the motor vehicle. In the prior art the measurement of fuel mass and volume required the use of expensive mass and volume meters which had various delicate and difficult to use components. Therefore, the measurement of fuel mass and volume tended to be a very difficult and/or expensive endeavor. The Duffy U.S. Pat. No. 3,314,524 shows a mass flow measuring device which converts volume flow to mass flow electronically. However, the system does not calculate both volume and mass flow values nor does it output volume flow and is therefore not a combined mass and volume flow meter. The Kissel U.S. Pat. No. 4,018,964 is a device for controlling the fuel-air ratio for internal combustion. It incorporates mass measurement but does not have an output or versatile programming control for vehicle performance testing because it is a unit built into the motor vehicle.
Unlike the prior art, the present invention provides for a vehicle performance monitoring system which incorporates into a single unit the desired functions of timing, data measurement, and computation of vehicle performance characteristics. Further, the present invention provides for a combined fuel mass and volume meter which is easy to use and inexpensive. The present invention also has computer calculated start/stop and a user-prompting programming system that is easy to use.